Art

Assistant Professor Shreepad Joglekar’s two national solo exhibitions opened in January 2017. “Towards An Outer Place” opened in the James May Gallery in Algoma, Wisconsin and “Heterotopia” opened in the Bertha VB Lederer Gallery at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Geneseo, New York. These exhibitions included works from two projects that Joglekar has developed in the past three years. One of the projects, called Landscapes For Fun, focuses on off road vehicle parks in Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The images in this project are made in the tradition of 19th century survey photography. The other project, called Non Places of Intelligence, explores the simulated environments used in military and law-enforcement training at Fort Riley post.

Chemistry

Tuyen Nguyen, doctoral student in chemistry, hopes a new method she is developing may treat bone cancer faster than chemotherapy. It also could partner with MRI scanning to diagnose cancer more effectively. Nguyen said she has synthesized nanoparticles, which are a million times smaller than a tennis ball, to sniff out villainous cancer and attack bone tumors head-on. Additionally, the nanoparticles light up cancer in MRIs to streamline diagnosis.

“It’s exciting that this research could someday help chemotherapy patients in the fight against cancer,” said Nguyen, whose research is conducted in and supported by the Nanotechnology Innovation Center of Kansas State, or NICKS. Read the full story here.

Communication Studies

Sarah Riforgiate, associate professor of communication studies, traveled to Norman, Oklahoma, Feb. 24 to be the keynote speaker at the University of Oklahoma’s Department of Communication Showcase Seminar. Riforgiate gave the keynote address “The Intersection of Paid Work and Private Life” about her ongoing research on domestic labor issues and the division of labor in the home. Later in the seminar, she gave a talk to students and faculty on navigating the process of promotion and tenure in academia.

In the article, Pennington argues that two factors influence how supportive we can find the presence of social media: time spent online and how close we were to the deceased. The quantitative analysis, conducted in spring 2016 at K-State, suggests that those who use social media more find it more helpful as they process grief. For college students in particular, Pennington argues, having access to a site like Facebook can be useful when dealing with grief. Her research argues that having a place online to turn to long after the funeral can serve a crucial role for support.

The study also revealed an interesting relationship when it came to close relationships: while those who were closed to the deceased found support from the page, they were also more likely to want the page removed from Facebook.

“This really points to the complexity of maintaining relationships online,” Pennington noted. “Coupled with my past research on this topic, I get the impression that individuals really feel a push and pull about grieving so publicly and the access other members of the deceased’s network have to the site.”

Economics

Assistant Professor Ross Milton received a Faculty Enhancement Award from the College of Arts and Sciences for his project titled “School Infrastructure Spending: Intra-District Allocation and Academic Outcomes.”

Professor of Economics Dan Kuester wrote an article for Wallethub.com, along with other economists and autors in related disciplines about the topic “Will Mexico Pay for the Wall?” Many of these articles are cited on CNBC or U.S. News and World Report, Kuester said.

English

Assistant Professor Steffi Dippold and undergraduate students Hunter Nelson (BA ‘19), Sarah Peterson (BA ‘17), Malorie Wagner (BA ‘18), and Cheyenne White (BA ‘18) presented “Reading Kansas: Finding Early America in Local Special Collections” at the 10th Biennial Conference of the Society of Early Americanists in Tulsa. Their joint presentation shared the process and results from the digital humanities project “Reading Kansas: Hidden Histories of Midwestern Book Culture” completed as part of the Honors seminar course ENGL 399 “The Power of the Page: Books That Made Us” (Fall 2016). Peterson, Wagner, and White received Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Travel awards to attend the conference and present their work. Back to top

Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies

GWSS graduate certificate student Noelle Lynn Blood was awarded a top paper prize in the Popular Culture Interest Group at the Central States Communication Association Conference in Minneapolis. Blood’s paper, titled “A Barbie for Every Body? The Barbie Fashionistas as a Simulacrum of Real Beauty,” is an intersectional feminist critique of the newer doll line. Continue reading “College Highlights, February 2017”→

American Ethnic Studies

Yolanda Broyles-González, department head of American Ethnic Studies, has published the first academic treatment of singer Jenni Rivera as part of a cultural studies anthology titled “De Aztlan al Rio de la Plata,” edited by Sergio M. Martinez.

The anthology’s title marks its transnational focus: “Aztlan” is a Nahuatl Aztec designation for North America, while “Rio de la Plata” designates South America. Mexican American singer Jenni Rivera enjoyed a singular hemispheric popularity across national borders. When Rivera died in a plane crash on Dec. 9, 2012, Mexican-Americans lost their greatest living song idol, while the world in general lost one of the most eloquent and engaged advocates for women of color.

In her article, Broyles-González traces the emergence of Rivera from a Long Beach, California barrio to a stardom, which gave voice to the most disenfranchised sectors of society. Her voice performed a powerful history from the fringe, which modeled empowerment for women, most especially immigrant Mexican women. Click here to read more.

Biology

Candidates for the award must be faculty members at one of 10 participating Kansas and Oklahoma universities with demonstrated success in their field and must have mentored a substantial number of junior faculty, postdoctoral fellows, or graduate or undergraduate students. The award was established in 2012 to recognize someone with demonstrated commitment to fostering the intellectual, creative, scholarly and professional growth of mentees. The award’s namesake, Joan S. Hunt, is professor emeritus of anatomy and cell biology at the University of Kansas Medical Center and the original principal investigator of K-INBRE. Read the full story here.

Communication Studies

Two Communication Studies students were awarded Arts and Sciences Research Travel Scholarships to attend the Central States Communication Association (CSCA) Conference. Brett Sitts, an undergraduate, and Lindsey Milburn, a graduate student, will both travel to Minneapolis later this spring for the conference.

Sitts and Paige Wiley, another undergraduate student, both had papers accepted to the CSCA Undergraduate Honors Research Conference (UHRC) and will present their papers as part of a competitive panel.

Economics

Dan Kuester gave a presentation on creating personal connections in the classroom as part of the GTA Professional Development Series sponsored by the Faculty Exchange for Teaching Excellence (FETE). This series features faculty lectures for graduate students who are interested in receiving certification in teaching techniques.

“This is the second consecutive year I was asked to give one of the talks and I was happy to do so,” Kuester said. “I spoke about ways to make the classroom environment less intimidating for students.”

Amanda Gaulke presented “Stopping Out of College: The Role of Credit Constraints” at the Western Economic Association International Conference in Santiago, Chile as part of a Contemporary Economic Policy: Public Policy and Inequality Series Session arranged by Indiana University.

Geography

Assistant Professor Francesco Orsi published a correspondence piece titled “Environment: Progressive Taxes for Sustainability” in the international journal Nature. The correspondence suggests levying progressive taxes on goods that are particularly detrimental to the environment as a method of achieving a more sustainable society. Orsi is a recognized authority on the use and preservation of green space and sustainable transportation.

Geology

Mattheow Totten and Abdelmoneam Raef and their student Keithan Martin published an article in the Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering on studying the petroleum system of the subsurface Hugoton embayment basin of western Kansas.

The study focuses on improving the understanding of the orientation, geometry, and spatial distribution of ooid shoal complexes in Kearny County, Kansas. Integration of multiple datasets and advanced Artificial Neural Networks analysis resulted in the development of a well-calibrated predictive tool for classifying specific rock characteristics (lithological facies) based on geophysical well-logs.

Biology

A team of biologists from K-State were honored with a national publication award at the annual conference of The Wildlife Society, Oct. 15-19, in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The research team from K-State included David Haukos, leader of the Kansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit; Brett Sandercock, professor of biology; Andrew Gregory, 2011 doctoral graduate and assistant professor at Bowling Green State University; Lance McNew, 2010 doctoral graduate and assistant professor at Montana State University; and Virginia Winder, 2013 postdoctoral fellow and assistant professor at Benedictine College.

The team received the 2016 award for Best Article for “Factors Affecting Female Space Use in Ten Populations of Prairie Chickens” that was published in the open-access journal Ecosphere in September 2015. Photo of prairie chickens courtesy Division of Biology Facebook page.Return to top

Chemistry / English

Four faculty members at two universities in Kansas have been named recipients of the state’s most prestigious recognition for scholarly excellence: the Higuchi-KU Endowment Research Achievement Awards. The four will be recognized Dec. 13 during a ceremony at the Kansas Memorial Union.

This year’s recipients from K-State are both faculty in the College of Arts & Sciences: Christer Aakeroy, university distinguished professor of chemistry, and Philip Nel, university distinguished professor of English.

This is the 35th annual presentation of the awards, established in 1981 by Takeru Higuchi, a distinguished professor at the University of Kansas from 1967 to 1983, and his wife, Aya. The awards recognize the exceptional long-term research accomplishments of faculty at Kansas Board of Regents universities. Each award includes a citation and a $10,000 award for ongoing research efforts. The money can be used for research materials, summer salaries, fellowship matching funds, hiring research assistants or other support related to research.

Awards are given in four categories: humanities and social sciences, basic sciences, biomedical sciences and applied sciences. Each award is named for former leaders of KU Endowment who played key roles in recruiting Higuchi to KU. Their financial support of KU helped enhance university research throughout Kansas. Continue reading “College Highlights, October 2016”→

Art

Associate Professor of Printmaking Jason Scuilla was invited to show his prints, including lo Lo Vidi (pictured at left), in an invitational group exhibition titled Grafica D’Arte Americana Contemporanea, September 9 – 23 at the Galleria Il Bisonte, Florence, Italy. The exhibition was curated by Andrew DeCaen.

Assistant Professor of Graphic Design Daniel Warner had two posters selected to appear in the Ecuador Poster Bienal. The Ecuador Poster Bienal is the principal axis of visual communication for the new continent, focusing its efforts as an academic, professional and creative event. Pictured at right is Warner’s Verfall. His poster Music Is Oxygen also received an Award of Excellence from Creative Quarterly: The Journal of Art and Design.

Assistant Professor of Ceramics Amy Santoferraro had works accepted into the group show Ceramics as Deception at the Urban Arts Space gallery in Columbus, Ohio. Pictured at left is Santoferraro’s Bubblegum.Return to top.

Biology

Alice Boyle was invited to two oral symposium presentations at the North American Ornithological Conference in Washington DC in late August and also presented three co-authored sessions with members of her K-State lab at the same meeting. The lab and K-State Biology had a major presence at this meeting—the largest ornithological conference in history.

Boyle is also spearheading a two-year, $200,000 National Science Foundation project to investigate how climate variation affects the survival, condition and reproduction of a small tropical bird, the white-ruffed manakin. The study aims to fill important information gaps that hamper our ability to predict consequences and mitigate ongoing global climate change.

Kathrin Schrick has been awarded a $321,000 grant from the National Science Foundation Genetic Mechanisms Program in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences. The gran, titled “START Lipid/Sterol Binding Domains in Homeodomain Transcription Factors from Plants,” will enable research to investigate protein-metabolite interactions underlying changes in gene expression in plants using the model system Arabidopsis. Schrick says, “We want to understand how plants respond to internal metabolic signals during development. The regulatory proteins we study are known to affect biomass in crop plants, so elucidating the mechanisms underlying transcriptional activity is of relevance to agriculture as well as to ecological systems.” The grant will fund postdoctoral trainees, STEM outreach activities, as well as two undergraduate summer students per year to participate in the Division of Biology REU program on Ecology and Evolutionary Biology of Changing Environments. Return to top.Continue reading “College Highlights, September 2016”→

“This project represents years of collaborative research across the world,” said Kanost, who studies insect immune systems. “We wanted to provide these valuable data to scientists, and our hope is that this sequenced genome will stimulate new research in molecular studies of insects.”

The tobacco hornworm, or Manduca sexta, develops into the Carolina sphinx moth. The name Manduca comes from the Latin word for glutton because these caterpillars eat so much. Manduca sexta occurs naturally in North, Central and South America and is a known pest to gardeners: It eats the leaves of tomato plants and also can be found on pepper, eggplant and potato plants. Crops and weeds from this plant family, which includes tobacco, produce chemicals such as nicotine that deter feeding by most insects, but not Manduca sexta, which makes its physiology especially interesting to scientists. The sequenced genome can lead to improved molecular biology, physiology and neurobiology research in insects and also may help in developing future new methods for insect pest management.

The life cycle of the tobacco hornworm, or Manduca sexta.

Kanost has studied the tobacco hornworm for decades, and he and Gary Blissard, from the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell University, decided to start the collaborative project to sequence the tobacco hornworm’s genome in 2009. Kanost’s research focuses on proteins in caterpillar’s blood and how insects protect themselves against infections. Kanost and the Kansas State University research team prepared and purified the DNA of the tobacco hornworm and sent the samples to the Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center in Houston, which performed the genome sequencing. The international team used a common computer system so that the researchers from around the world could analyze the gene sequences based on their areas of expertise.

Other Kansas State University researchers involved in the project included Susan Brown, university distinguished professor of biology; Rollie Clem, professor of biology; William Bryant, research assistant professor in biology; Neal Dittmer, research assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics; Subbaratnam Muthukrishnan, university distinguished professor emeritus of biochemistry and molecular biophysics; Lorena Passarelli, professor of biology; Yoonseong Park, professor of entomology; Nicolae Herndon, doctoral graduate in computer science; Jayne Christen, doctoral graduate and former postdoctoral research associate in biochemistry and molecular biophysics; and Di Wu, former postdoctoral research associate in biochemistry and molecular biophysics. The project received financial support from the National Institutes of Health (Kanost) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA (Blissard). Return to top

Biology

Walter Dodds, university distinguished professor of biology, was named an inaugural fellow of the Society for Freshwater Science.

Dodds is recognized for his contributions to freshwater science, promoting freshwater science through education and outreach and membership in the society. The society’s board of directors selected fellows for the inaugural class.

The society is an international scientific organization that promotes further understanding of freshwater ecosystems — rivers, streams, wetlands and lakes — and ecosystems at the interface between aquatic and terrestrial habitats, such as streamside vegetation. Dodds will be recognized and inducted into the inaugural class of fellows at the society’s annual meeting, June 4-9, 2017, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Return to top

English

Joe Sutliff Sanders, associate professor of English, published two edited collections: “The Comics of Herge: When the Lines Are Not So Clear” (UP of Mississippi, 2016) and, with colleague Michelle Ann Abate, “Good Grief! Children’s Comics, Past and Present” (Ohio State University Libraries, 2016).

Sanders also published essays in each collection: “Herge’s Occupations: How the Creator of Tintin Made a Deal with the Devil and Became a Better Cartoonist” and “How Comics Became Kids’ Stuff.” Return to top